Florida: The Legislature Countdown

The Florida legislature’s session ends tomorrow. Today, the Florida Senate basically tossed the ball into the House’s court, to amend their wording to match the Senate version of an antievolution bill. The House is still in session going on into the evening. There’s a lot of actual legislation needed to keep the state government going that needs to be considered and voted on. So various places have discussed the possibility that the session will end without further action on the antievolution bills in play, including a bizarre claim from Discovery Institute Carpetbagger-Plenipotentiary John West that if the session expired without an “academic freedom” (DI’s sense of “academic irresponsibility”) law resulting that Florida Republican lawmakers would have “a lot of explaining to do”.

But no one’s livelihood or property are safe while the legislature is in session, or so it is said, and there’s another day where the House could decide to capitulate to the Senate and pass the Senate’s version. It likely would not take them long if they decided to just do it, and that would leave the issue in the hands of Governor Crist. Unfortunately, Crist’s reputation for having a low backbone quotient doesn’t bode well if that comes to pass.

Update: Word is that Rep. Alan Hays is planning to bring the Senate bill wording before the House today, just as I mentioned as a possibility above. This is the last chance to inform your representatives just how bad a bill this is.

Update: And the scoop appears to be that the House failed to pass the Senate version of the “academic freedom” bill. Florida gets a one year breather on legislation. Expect a stiff breeze out of Seattle.